Lord’s Day 50
Q125. What does the fourth request mean?
Give us this day our daily bread means, do take care of all our physical needs so that we come to know that you are the only source of everything good, and that neither our work and worry nor your gifts can do us any good without your blessing. And so help us to give up our trust in creatures and to put trust in you alone.
Scripture Proofs — King James Version
Psalm 104:27–28
“These wait all upon thee; that thou mayest give their meat in due season. thou givest them they gather: thou openest thine hand, they are filled with good.”
Psalm 145:15–16
“The eyes of all wait upon thee; and thou givest them their meat in due season. Thou openest thine hand, and satisfiest the desire of every living thing.”
Matthew 6:25–34
“Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment? Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?”
Acts 14:17
“Nevertheless he left not himself without witness, in that he did good, and gave us rain from heaven, and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness.”
Acts 17:25
“Neither is worshipped with men's hands, as though he needed any thing, seeing he giveth to all life, and breath, and all things;”
James 1:17
“Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.”
Deuteronomy 8:3
“And he humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know; that he might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every that proceedeth out of the mouth of the LORD doth man live.”
Psalm 37:16
“A little that a righteous man hath better than the riches of many wicked.”
Psalm 127:1–2
“[A Song of degrees for Solomon.] Except the LORD build the house, they labour in vain that build it: except the LORD keep the city, the watchman waketh in vain. vain for you to rise up early, to sit up late, to eat the bread of sorrows: so he giveth his beloved sleep.”
1 Corinthians 15:58
“Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.”
Psalm 55:22
“Cast thy burden upon the LORD, and he shall sustain thee: he shall never suffer the righteous to be moved.”
Psalm 62
“[To the chief Musician, to Jeduthun, A Psalm of David.] Truly my soul waiteth upon God: from him my salvation. He only my rock and my salvation; my defence; I shall not be greatly moved. How long will ye imagine mischief against a man? ye shall be slain all of you: as a bowing wall a tottering fence. They only consult to cast down from his excellency: they delight in lies: they bless with their mouth, but they curse inwardly. Selah. My soul, wait thou only upon God; for my expectation from him. He only my rock and my salvation: my defence; I shall not be moved. In God my salvation and my glory: the rock of my strength, my refuge, in God. Trust in him at all times; people, pour out your heart before him: God a refuge for us. Selah. Surely men of low degree vanity, men of high degree a lie: to be laid in the balance, they altogether than vanity. Trust not in oppression, and become not vain in robbery: if riches increase, set not your heart . God hath spoken once; twice have I heard this; that power unto God. Also unto thee, O Lord, mercy: for thou renderest to every man according to his work.”
Psalm 146
“Praise ye the LORD. Praise the LORD, O my soul. While I live will I praise the LORD: I will sing praises unto my God while I have any being. Put not your trust in princes, in the son of man, in whom no help. His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth; in that very day his thoughts perish. Happy that the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope in the LORD his God: Which made heaven, and earth, the sea, and all that therein : which keepeth truth for ever: Which executeth judgment for the oppressed: which giveth food to the hungry. The LORD looseth the prisoners: The LORD openeth the blind: the LORD raiseth them that are bowed down: the LORD loveth the righteous: The LORD preserveth the strangers; he relieveth the fatherless and widow: but the way of the wicked he turneth upside down. The LORD shall reign for ever, thy God, O Zion, unto all generations. Praise ye the LORD.”
Jeremiah 17:5–8
“Thus saith the LORD; Cursed the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the LORD. For he shall be like the heath in the desert, and shall not see when good cometh; but shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, a salt land and not inhabited. Blessed the man that trusteth in the LORD, and whose hope the LORD is. For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and spreadeth out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat cometh, but her leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit.”
Hebrews 13:5–6
“conversation without covetousness; content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. So that we may boldly say, The Lord my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me.”
Commentary — Zacharias Ursinus (1616)
This petition respecting our daily bread, it would seem should have been placed after the petition in which we pray for the forgiveness of our sins, inasmuch as such benefits as are most important should be prayed for first, whilst those which are less important should be sought last. But Christ having regard to our infirmities, placed this fourth petition respecting our daily bread, as it were in the middle of the prayer which he prescribed, that we might both commence and end our prayers with petitions for spiritual blessings as being most important; and that the obtaining and receiving of temporal benefits might confirm in us more and more a confidence of obtaining spiritual blessings.
In this fourth petition we are taught to pray for temporal blessings, concerning which we must enquire, I. "Why temporal blessings should be prayed for:"
II. "In what manner they are to be sought:"